Use your noodle: A guide to noodles

Mary-Jane Daffy

Navigating your way through the oodles of noodles in the Asian repertoire can be dizzying. But persevere. There's something wholeheartedly comforting about eating noodles tangled in heady pork stock, a spicy stir-fry, or served cold with chilli, coriander and fish sauce. Selecting the right noodle is important, so we've asked the experts for some guidance.

Read their advice below, or click on each noodle type in the interactive graphic above for cooking tips and a recipe.

Use your noodles

Soft and springy, these Japanese wheat noodles are best when fresh. At Melbourne's Nama Nama cafe, udon chef Yosuke Furukawa makes udon noodles using a traditional feet-kneading process (everything's wrapped in plastic) before hand-rolling the resistant dough and cutting it to medium thickness.

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"There's something about udon that's very generous and energetic," Nama Nama co-owner Simon Denton says. "But they should never be starchy."

A vigorous cooking regimen ensures that. Before serving, Furukawa cooks the noodles in boiling water twice, refreshes them under cold water twice, and re-heats to serve. The resulting noodles are bouncy and light and are served in hot broths topped with pork, seaweed and quail egg, say, or cold with a dipping sauce and condiments like spring onion and horseradish.

Denton likes cold udon dishes, especially in summer. He admits that when he's at home and fresh noodles aren't available, he uses Spiral Organic udon noodles.

Hokkien noodles

Commonly used in Malaysian and Thai hawker cuisine, the origins of thick, fresh hokkien egg noodles are Chinese. Said to be a favoured noodle of the Hokkien Chinese, hokkien noodles are ideal for stir-fries and salads. Andy Pruksa, co-owner of Sydney Thai restaurant and tuk shop Muum Maam, serves a hokkien noodle stir-fry as a lunch special from his street-style cart.

He believes hokkien noodles intensify the overall flavour of a stir-fry because they absorb and hold the sauce. Hokkien noodles tend not to be used in Thai soups as they're considered too thick to hold the sauce. Pruksa says the secret to cooking great hokkien noodles is not to overcook them.

Vermicelli noodles

Let's resolve the vermicelli noodle debate. Often confused as glass or cellophane noodles, vermicelli rice noodles are long thin noodles made from rice flour and are widely used in rice-paper rolls, cold salads and braises. Cellophane noodles (or glass noodles, Chinese vermicelli) are thin translucent noodles made from mung bean starch and used in hot pots, stir-fries and soups. In Korea, vermicelli noodles are made from sweet potato starch or buckwheat, and are popular in stir-fries or served cold.

Jason Lui, manager of Melbourne's Cantonese darling Flower Drum, says rice vermicelli is particularly good for stir-fries. He recommends gently poaching the noodles before tossing them through the stir-fry, which will stiffen the noodle.

"For Asian braises with lots of sauce, use rice vermicelli too," he says. The moisture is soaked into the noodle for a softer, spongier texture.

What's Flower Drum's vermicelli of choice? Happy Swallow.

Soba noodles

It's the colour and flavour of these thin Japanese noodles that initially appeals. Depending on the amount of buckwheat flour used to make them, soba noodles range from light beige to dark brown and have a distinct nutty flavour.

At Menya Mappen, the flavour of soba noodles can take a back seat when served in hot pork or soy broths and topped with lively sauces. The bar uses dry soba noodles imported from Japan, but Kim says most packet soba noodles are flavoursome.

"They should be washed," he insists. The secret to great soba is rinsing them with cold water after cooking until the water runs clear, and re-heating to serve.

Pho noodles

At Melbourne's fun and frugal pho haven, I Love Pho 264, Vietnamese (or Chinese, depending on who you talk to) thin pho rice noodles come twisting in exhilarating broths topped with sliced meats and fresh herbs. The soul of pho is in the broth, but good pho noodles will enhance the final bowl. At I Love Pho 264, customers choose between fresh Melbourne-made pho noodles and reconstituted pho noodles.

"Fresher noodles are tastier," says Hung Vo, son of I Love Pho 264's founders. "They're soft and thick and soak up the flavours more." Reconstituted noodles are thinner and harder and Vo recommends soaking them in cold water before cooking.

"Reconstituted noodles are popular because they have less fat, less oil and for many people the flavour is familiar," he says. If using reconstituted noodles at home for pho, Vo recommends Golden Dragon or Number One pho noodles.

Flat egg noodles

When it comes to Asian noodles, fresh is best according to Palisa Anderson, co-director of Sydney's five Chat Thai restaurants and daughter of Chat Thai founder Amy Chanta. She would know. Every day the Chat Thai chain serves an average of 90 kilograms of Asian noodles to hungry punters.

"Flat egg noodles are the most popular," she says of the soft and springy noodle served widely throughout Asia, and also known as Lo Mein Noodles or Cantonese noodles.

At Chat Thai, flat egg noodles come snaking in a five-spice duck broth with shredded duck, say, or as a dry option with barbecued pork, prawn and chicken wontons.

"They're a very versatile noodles, similar to fettuccine," Anderson says. For a quick meal at home, she suggests blanching fresh egg noodles and serving with a selection of condiments.

19 comments so far

Okay here is a quick noodle question for you. I absolutely love Hokkien noodles and realise that buying them fresh would def be the best way to enjoy them. That said theyre not always available and have to go for the supermarket bought block. Whenever I do though and try to break them apart with boiling/hot water they almost always break into small pieces ruining the experience. So much so I've given away using them.

Know a good way to "refresh" these preserved block of Hokkien noodles? Anyone... anyone? :)

Commenter

McSASO

Location

Date and time

May 03, 2013, 9:22AM

I usually cut open the packet and put it in a microwave for about a minute before I add them to the stir fries

Commenter

rebagliatt

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 03, 2013, 11:05AM

Its really quite hard to find 'fresh' hokkien noodles as the vast majority of hokkien noodles are preserved.

If you use hot water on hokkien noodles you will end up with starchy noodles and leave it for too long, soft, breakable AND starchy noodles - that in any cuisine's book means that it is ruined.

Key is not to use boiling water if you're going to cook hokkien noodles in any stir fry because that would literally precook the noodle before you've even tossed it into the stir fry/soup to cook.

In a colander, put packed noodles in sink over low running water (cold/room temp is best, keeps it firm and bouncy) and untangle, shake by hand gently, then toss gently a little and put it straight into stir fry - it doesn't have to be completely untangled, just well loosened.

If you're going to put the noodles in a soup, blanch quickly in hot water before putting in soup.

If you're insistent on using hot water, don't soak it for too long. Pour in hot water, shake and separate using chopsticks and then rinse with cold water.

Commenter

Green Tea

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

May 03, 2013, 11:25AM

Thanks will give that a try.

Commenter

McSASO

Location

Date and time

May 03, 2013, 8:20PM

Hi McSASO, I am a malaysian residing in brisbane, the hokkien noodles in blocks, they are generally not very suitable for fresh stir fries but you can wing it if you boil it but not with hot boiling water because it will make it gluggy and soggy, just boil it quickly for say 3 mins to get it hot but not so long in the water ruining it. I hope this helps you. if u live in sydney a good place to try out noodles is Mamak so is Melbourne and in Brisbane, Malaya Corner or Little Singapore in Sunnybank.

Commenter

Jools A L

Location

brisbane

Date and time

May 05, 2013, 6:39PM

@JOOLS AL - Mamak? That horrible overrated, overpriced place where you see 4 tragic figures hunched over a $16 small bowl of what passes for chicken curry? Or where they put CABBAGE in mutabak and call it 'authentic'? How about <insert expletive> NO. I don't care if their canais are $10 each - what I care about and feel more offended by is the place being owned by actual Malaysians and serving bottom of the barrel Malaysian fare in the guise of casual dining and still has the gall to cheerily charge you a $2 public holiday surcharge PER PERSON after whacking a plate of what passes for Malaysian food.Sorry, nothing against you but I wouldn't ever point anyone in the direction of Mamak to sample Malaysian food.

How can you possibly not mention fresh rice noodles, hor fun I think they're called? The most wondrous noodle ever! Sensuously soft and luscious and slurpy, they just love sauces and vice versa. They come in pillow shaped sheets which you can cut to your own desired thickness or width or already cut in strips. Buy them fresh, use them that day; don't refrigerate, as it makes them brittle.

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